SHAOLIN JAZZ in Ethiopia / Panelist: Tewodross Melchishua

Meet Tewodross “Teo” Melchishua (pronounced Tee-oh-droze Mell-keshu-ah) one of the panelists on our discussion this Sunday. Teo serves as an associate professor and program coordinator of visual communication and digital media arts program (VCDMA) and teaches courses in animation, motion graphics, cinematography, new media, hip-hop studies and contemporary (underground) art/design. Teo also works this through his film and digital media studio collective Visual Jazz, located in the Art Lives Here Business Incubator, in Mount Rainier, just in the Gateway Arts district of Prince George’s County.

Teo is a filmmaker, animator, visual artist, VJ, projection designer, educator and curator from Prince George’s County, Maryland, who received his BA in Art/Photographic Media from Morgan State University, and an MFA in Imaging & Digital Arts from UMBC.

His visual art, animation and films have been shown to audiences nationally and internationally.

For the full read clickHe has also been a featured speaker, panelist and consultant on several workshops, panels and television programs discussing issues and topics such as digital art & multimedia, design, animation, filmmaking and the cultural and historical aesthetics of the moving image, technology, hip-hop studies and diversity in the fields of independent filmmaking and animation.

He received a Fulbright-Hays Seminars Abroad Fellowship that allowed him to travel to Senegal and Morocco. He also has participated in research projects with high school students in Israel. Most recently he was part of a study abroad experience and visit to Ethiopia with students and faculty in the School of Business at Bowie State University, to focus on African and African American business, trade and investment opportunities. He produced a short mini-doc on this great experience titled “Journey to Addis: BSU Does Business in Ethiopia.” To watch the doc click here and for additional info about the trip click here.

Teo has had a close relationship with the local Ethiopian and African community and has benefited from great mentors such as Haile Gerima, Acklyn Lynch, Acha Debela and Fiseha Eshete among others.

He also taught animation and motion graphics at Howard University and Prince George’s Community College. He recently created a minor in Hip-Hop Studies & Visual Culture at Bowie State University, one of the few in the nation, and the first at an HBCU and the first of its kind at a university in the state of Maryland. Bowie State has sent two delegations of students to Ethiopia and is one of the few universities and especially an HBCU to offer an undergraduate course in Amharic.

He co-wrote the multimedia performance, and created videos and video projection for Nacirema and created produced video remixes and serves as resident VJ for the Shaolin Jazz – the 37th Chamber project (a mixtape of Wu-Tang Clan with Blue Note and other jazz musicians) produced by Gerald Watson and DJ 2-Tone Jones. He has also worked with the DC Hip-Hop Theatre Festival, Words, Beats and Life and other hip-hop organizations and events here in the DMV and NYC. He was a featured artist and apart of the Kennedy Center’s One Mic: Hip-Hop Worldwide Festivaland also a designer for Cinderella: The Remix.

In 2009, curated the hip-hop based exhibition, M3: MCs, Mics and Metaphors, which was exhibited at Flashpoint and Busboys and Poets in Washington, DC. He has served as a creative consultant on various film/video, design and animation productions, and mentors younger animators and filmmakers. He was the illustrator for children’s book written by Dr. Winmilawe Shango’s Son. He also has produced animation, visuals and video projections for theatrical productions such as The Pitmen Painters, Caesar & Dada, The Thunder Thigh Review, Paige In Full, Liner Notes, Slam Theatre 1.0, Where My Girls At? and Galactic Ritual: A Hip-Hop Theatre Experience ft. SA-ROC and Sol Messiah, and Sole Defined.

Currently, he also serves as an associate professor and program coordinator of visual communication and digital media arts program (VCDMA) and teaches courses in animation, motion graphics, cinematography, new media, hip-hop studies and contemporary (underground) art/design.

For additional info about Tewodross’ multimedia studio Visual Jazz click here and to learn about his work at Bowie State University.

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About gmoney77

My name is Gerald Watson and I do lifestyle marketing for various companies/agencies. The purpose of this blog is to highlight the people I work with, the work I do as well as the shit I see on the regular.